I got a display case for my Amiibos and other figures to protect them from dust!
They look kind of cool. 😀
Amiibos and stuff
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Category Archives: Personal Life
Blog of 2014
Hay guys, here’s a summary of my year! I think I’ve got less to write than usual because most of my year was dominated by a few big events. Anyway…
• I played a lot of indie games on Steam in order to learn from them. A lot of otherwise great games seem very short or unpolished, and I feel that’s where I can do better than them.
• Made a bunch of new game developer friends as I prepared for Epic Battle Fantasy 4’s Steam launch.
• Watched a bunch of classic movies that I should have seen a long time ago, with my favorites being the Rocky films. My favorite TV shows of the year were The Wire and Six Feet Under.
• Launched EBF4 on Steam! Sold very well on the first day (18th on the bestseller list)! No major problems on launch, just a few minor compatibility issues for some people. I guess this is the event that defined the whole year for me.
• Started working on Bullet Heaven 2! It quickly turned into a much bigger project than I originally intended, but that’s probably a good thing. Aiming for another Steam release!
• Playing around with new Flash features, including gamepad support and hardware acceleration through frameworks like Starling and Dragonbones. Planning to stick to Flash for a while, cause I still enjoy using it.
• My Ghost and Scorpion peppers finally grew up and tortured a few people. I think I’ve gone as far as I want to go with those, and I’m gonna start getting rid of my plants slowly. Grew 12 types of peppers in total!
• EBF4 was featured in Steam’s Community Choice during the Summer Sale, which resulted in a huge number of sales! This was a pretty awesome and unexpected bonus!
• Dated a girl for the first 6 months of the year. She seemed pretty cool at first, but we really didn’t click that well. The breakup still really hurt me, even though things weren’t going well. At least it was a learning experience.
• Did a bit of hillwalking when the weather was nice. Managed to set some new fitness records: Cycled 62km in a day, and managed to run 10km.
• Volunteered at a community center for a while. It was kinda fun to meet different people but I got bored of it eventually.
• Scotland almost became independent and I got interested in politics briefly. Instantly lost my interest afterwards, and regretted wasting my time on it, as usual.
• Collected some gym equipment in my spare room and started doing a bit of lifting.
• My favorite book this year was “How to Win Friends and Influence People”. Changed my views on how to treat people and build relationships.
• I’m getting a bit better at driving, but I still suck at a lot things, like parking in tight spaces or driving in bad weather.
• Played a lot of 3DS games and bought a WiiU! Not a fan of the WiiU console, but the games on it are great! My favorite games for the year are Smash Bros 4, Bayonetta 2, Mario Kart 8 and Final Fantasy Theatrhythm: CC. Games used up a big chunk of this year, because I had a lot of catching up to do.
• Started seeing another girl! Looks like things might turn out better this time!
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas, everyone!
For anyone who hasn’t noticed yet: You can find Santa equipment in EBF4 in December. 😀
I’ve just been playing WiiU with the family. New Super Mario Bros is a lot of fun with 4 people who dunno how to work together. 😛
My girlfriend is away to her homeland for a few weeks so I’ll finally be getting back to work soon!
WiiU!
Hay guys. I got a WiiU and spent the week playing through Super Mario 3D World, New Super Mario Bros and Mario Kart 8. Already picked up Hyrule Warriors and Bayonetta 2, but I think I’ll take a break before getting into those. There’s so many good games coming out recently, it’s hard to keep on top of everything. D:
I love that I can play games while playing YouTube videos on the TV. That’s great for multitasking, since I have a huge list of “Watch Later” videos which are mostly talks that don’t require my full attention.
It’s a shame that the gamepad doesn’t reach very far (I can’t use it in the bathroom 🙁 ). The quality of the gamepad screen is also kind of meh… The video compression on it is pretty visible. But it’s still way more comfortable than any other handheld gaming device, which makes up for that.
I haven’t seen any particularly creative uses for having two screens yet, but maybe I’ll see that in some other games. Mario World did a few fun things with the touchscreen, but nothing that was a major part of the game experience.
Anyway… Although the hardware feels a bit weak, it’s great fun to use and feels much less gimmicky than the Wii, based on the few games I’ve tried so far. It’s also great to finally be able to play Nintendo games in HD. Long overdue, that. 😛
PS: I’m rather infatuated with Rosalina now. I’m going to have to learn how to use her in Smash.
Independance & Minecraft
Scottish Independence:
You guys outside of the UK might not know or care, but Scotland could be a real country soon!
Everyone’s getting really passionate about it and the vote is looking to be very close at the moment.
Most of my highschool and uni friends are in favor of independence, because they think the Scottish government will make better decisions for Scotland than the British government has done so far, and I mostly agree. Scotland currently controls education and healthcare, and well, those things are arguably handled much better than they are in England. (Education is still free in Scotland, while prices are going up in England). Meanwhile, England is making some very unpopular decisions in regards to immigration policies, European Union membership, and military spending, which most Scots disagree with.
On the other hand, voters against independence are generally people who are satisfied with what they’ve got, and don’t want to take any risks. Which is understandable, I suppose. The UK government is obviously trying very hard to convince Scotland to stay, with some rather patronizing and fear-mongering ads.
Anyway, no matter how things go, one side is going to be very pissed off at the other side.
Personally, it probably won’t make a huge difference to me, since I get paid by US companies, so my job or currency isn’t threatened at all.
Minecraft:
I’m both nervous and excited about Microsoft buying Minecraft/Mojang.
For $2.5 billion, they’ve gotta have some serious plans for it (a sequel?), but at the same time, MS could totally mess this up, as they’ve done with Rare in the past. At the very least, development on Minecraft should speed up with a bigger team behind it, and I think that should be quite interesting.
Also, I think this makes Notch the first indie game developer to become a billionaire…. impressive.
Somewhat related, I’ve been talking to a local community centre about starting some sort of Minecraft club for kids! That could be an interesting experience if it goes ahead.
Gym:
Now that my brother’s moved out, I’ve got a spare room! I’m thinking of building a gym in there, because there’s not much use for it otherwise.
I recently inherited a bench and some weights, so I’ve started doing a bit of lifting, and it’s pretty addictive! Plus it’s something I can do even when the weather’s crap, unlike running and cycling.
Chili Peppers:
Recently my Scorpion chili plant produced a single fruit! I’m not stupid enough to eat the whole thing, but I’ll try a bit at some point. Unfortunately it’s not the record holder anymore; new varieties are developed too quickly!
Not sure if I mentioned it earlier, but my Ghost plant produced like 5 peppers, and I ate half of one! It was definitely worse than anything I had ate before.
Anyway, that’s me crossed growing chili peppers off my achievements list.
I’ve grown 12 types of peppers in total, and have had enough of them.
Time to find a new hobby!
This thing will melt your face off.